Begin Here

How strong are you?

How wise are you?

How easily do you ‘walk in beauty’?

Are you abundant enough to feel you can give it away, and still wear your treasures each day?

How interconnected are you to all-that-is?

Brawn — Brains — Beauty — Bounty — Community

It can be a challenge to call up our inherent strength, wisdom and beauty as women in the modern world. And yet, these qualities are our birthright and our fundamental nature, and the support that we need to embody them is all around us, if we choose it.

Historically, the Amazons were warrior women, known for their self-sufficiency, ingenuity, strength, truth, love and valor.

These ancient world Wonder Women have inspired us to offer a framework of support for modern women based on the principles of

embodiment, empowerment and emancipation.

Yours is the journey only You can make…

…SO if you suspect you really are stronger than you think…

…and you’re drawn to the idea of an Amazon,…

then read on, step closer, and inquire deeper.

Why an Academy?

The Amazon Academy is a training ground, founded on the principles of embodiment, empowerment & emancipation.

Rarely these days is an Amazon born an Amazon, so anyone who desires to be one must train to uncover their inherent Wonder Woman nature.

We’ll support you with physical practices, virtual interactions and in-person gatherings and training so that you can begin to access your true Amazonian nature.

You’ll develop your Amazonian-ness in these arenas:

Brawn–How strong are you?Brains–How wise are you?Beauty–How easily do you ‘walk in beauty’, as the Navaho/Diné say?Bounty–Are you abundant enough to feel you can give it away, and still wear your treasures each day?Community–How interconnected are you to all-that-is?

With an aim to “awaken the heart to action”, the Amazon Academy offers you the playing grounds to know the powa of sensitivity that horses live by, to learn how to hit a self-selected target, to experience fire-making in the rain, to meet the land, water, air, animals and plant beings, not as a tourist, but as a comrade.

Is this for you in 2019?

Do you know deep down that you’re stronger than you think?

Are you ready to let go of what no longer serves you and step into your wholeness?

Maybe you’ve already tried yoga, meditation, mindfulness practices, or therapy, but you are still looking for that deep sense of strength, wisdom & beauty.

Here’s why the Amazon Academy really works:

Founded on the principles of Embodiment, Empowerment & Emancipation, the Amazon Academy supports you with a potent combination of yoga-inspired practices, virtual interactions and in-person gatherings and training that will uncover your true Amazonian nature.

So if 2019 is your year to really access your inner Wonder Woman then here’s how you jump on board…

You’ll take your first step by cultivating your inherent physical strength: Brawn. Our offering to support you in this is MYOGA Seasons: an online series of seasonal yoga practices for you to practice at home.

Experience a taste of MYOGA Seasons with a FREE in-season yoga practice…

Still not sure?

You might be hesitant because of fear of getting it wrong or uncertainty about how to proceed.

We understand.

We want to make this program accessible to every body & that’s why we provide a free trial, interactive support & forums where you can post your concerns & a progressive seasonally-rooted series with additional referrals on where & how to support or go deeper.

And we host in-person gatherings and trainings, where you can take your Seasons training off the mat, hone your Amazonian skills and connect with the Amazon Academy community.

In-Person Gatherings & How to Prepare for Them At-Home

Seasonal Gatherings & Trainings

Our next Gathering will be June 20 -23, Marahau. Click here for more information & to register your interest.

If you’d like to be informed of future Gatherings, please register your interest here.

In these, we’ll go deeper and wider yet again as we actively take the Seasons trainings off the mat, out of the house or studio, and out into what we think of as the wilds. Now, together in person, all of the provocations, awarenesses and skill-building we’ve been working on privately will be put into action.

We’ll learn combat skills, how to build fire, connect to horses, try out marksmanship, explore conscious communication and much more!

Check out our amazing Amazon facilitators to get a greater sense of what will be on offer. As much as possible, we’ll have a concurrent Amazon Ally offering.

Brawn: Your Physical Practice

Online • NZ$49 per Season

This is the easiest way to lock into the energies we’re exploring in each Season, including the qualities of that time of year wherever you are, as well as the super-powas you possess in each chakra/energy centre. With these home yoga practices, we’re focusing on Embodiment.

This level is your regular investment of time, space and energy into the physical realm. Our offering to support you is MYOGA Seasons: an online series of seasonal yoga practices for you to practice at home.

Each Season builds upon the last and prepares for the next so you all-ways start wherever you step in. Yet, year after year the evolution continues as you spiral-ascend yourSelf.

Brains: Virtual Interaction & Support

Online • Included in the MYOGA Seasons packages

How much are you aware of what it is you do, and ‘who you be’?

When you enroll in the MYOGA Seasons home yoga practices, you’ll now also receive regular support videos, as well as written provocations, tips, insights and support that will take you to deeper levels of the home practices.

With the added virtual-interaction layer, of videos and text providing deeper meaning and a wider gaze of the material we’re exploring privately in home practice, we develop awareness, accountability and the beginning levels of Amazonian-ness. With awareness comes the empowerment of knowing your tools, materials and skills.

Who’s behind it all?

Melissa Billington

Miriam Lancewood

Lindsay Alderton

Sonia Waters

Rebecca Bee Gunson

Stephanie Sinclair

Marjan van den Belt

Lucinda Staniland

Melissa Billington

The Amazon Academy is where my instincts and keen interests currently lead me, as a means of taking the unity consciousness off the yoga mat and out into relationship with the wider community, especially the innocent and unprotected–the women, children, animals, water and trees. If you’re curious, you’re welcome to join me in these adventures. I can’t say where they will lead you, for only you can discover that for yourself…

Miriam Lancewood

Miriam Lancewood was born in a small village in Holland. Miriam wrote a book–“Woman in the Wilderness”–about her adventures living with her husband in the wilderness of New Zealand. They lived for 7 years in a tent, walked around like nomads, cooked on a fire, and completed the Te Araroa Trail. Their life is about embracing insecurity and stepping into the unknown.

Miriam wanted to be part of the Amazon Academy, to encourage other women to find inner fire, inner light, inner power and independence, as well as always remaining gentle to the earth and all the men and children. Miriam will be facilitating in a number of Seasons, starting in March with dates TBC’d.

Lindsay Alderton

Lindsay is passionate about the importance of a spiritual practice grounded in the lived experience of the body. She is committed to combining this with collective social action to birth more life-affirming cultures into being.

Lindsay will be facilitating in our First Spring Season (Sept, date TBC’d) with its energies of earth-centred security & embodiment, as well as learning to individuate & heal from ancestral lines.

Sonia Waters

Creator of Wildself, mother of two, lover of one, wild woman adventurer. From corporate success highs and deep dark holes, to life in the mountains and flowing rivers. Sonia now offers herself to you as guide in your journey to your Wildself.

Sonia will be facilitating in our Brightest Spring Season (Oct, date TBC’d), the relational realm of coming home to your own sweetness, but with an inquiry into the dynamic between ‘the hunter & the hunted’.

Rebecca Bee Gunson

Rebecca has been working with vocal opening, womb toning and accessing orgasmic sound for many years now. Her main practise has been connecting with her own sound as she enjoys playing in Nature and feeling the wild freedom and liberation of feeling sound move through the body.

Rebecca will be facilitating in our Autumn Season (April/May date TBC’d) with its focus on sounding our truth by opening into space in the Vishuddha energy centre of purification.

Marjan van den Belt

Born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Marjan has always felt a longing to be in nature and with horses. She also has an unstoppable drive to understand and change the way we – collectively – seem intent on wrecking this planet.

Marjan is facilitating the first Classroom Alive in New Zealand, co-created with ZInzi Wits. This is a journey, a school and a movement, where groups of people come together to go on a mindful walkabout, with the intention for self-study and reflective learning.

Lucinda Staniland

Lucinda is passionate about living in connection with plants, animals and all of nature and she is an enthusiastic wild food forager. She is also the Editor of The Yoga Lunchbox, New Zealand’s most popular yoga website, and has a long term commitment to embodiment and movement practices.

Lucinda works behind the scenes on the Amazon Academy, assisting Melissa with all kinds of amazon-related jobs.

What about the men?

For those male-identified folk keen on upping their Amazonian-ness, we have the Amazon Allies. In ancient times the Amazons were actually whole nomadic tribes of the Eurasian Steppes, made up of women, men and children.

As women gain ground in their embodiment, empowerment and emancipation, everyone benefits, yet the realm of true equality is relatively new. We want to offer the opportunity for the men to evolve with us.

The best description we’ve heard of an Amazon Ally is ‘a man who can handle a woman who can handle herself’! Our in-person Amazons Amass gatherings will include a facilitator for the male focus, separate from the female. Then we’ll gather together to collaborate and unify forces.

What is our true potential? What are the mechanisms that allow us to go from a constricted life, to an open, expanded life? I’m excited to see what we can embody, and to observe how that radiates outward. It’s my honor to offer my knowledge of energy cultivation through meditation, qi gong, and understanding the body. By transforming ourselves we can transform our world, and we can have loads of fun while we are at it!

I think that heart based awareness (and just generally getting out of our heads) is a big factor for Amazon Allies, in terms of being allies to women and balanced human beings. Also it’s an absolute prerequisite for anything more powerful or magical in terms of doing ritual.

Sister to Melanippe, Penthesilea was killed by Achilles in battle at Troy.

Amazons became known for this war tactic of seeming to retreat but then turning & firing while riding away.